LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It wasn't easy for Kosair Charities to track down the winner of its classic car giveaway.

And the winner won't even be able to drive his prize home -- he's making arrangements to get it to his garage in Paris, France.

That's where this year's winner, Oliver Hassan, is from.

It has been a long journey in every sense of the word. Oliver Hassan's 13-year-old son, Ethan, spotted the ride when the two attended a Nashville car show last year. Kosair Charities was selling raffle tickets.

"And my son was with me at the Good Guys meeting, he told me, 'papa you can win a car -- look it's an orange car!' And I said to him, 'no forget it, it's like everybody, you never win and he says, 'no papa, please I want to buy, I want to take with my money.' And I said 'OK, and we buy two tickets."

Months later, Hassan got a strange message on his cell phone.

"I listened to message very quickly," Hassan said. "But I wasn't in France, I was traveling and I thought it was someone with a car, a mistake about the rental car, so I even erased the message."

So Robert Hart with Kosair Charities says the organization had to track him down.

"Trying to figure out who and where he was was a big event for us," Hart said.

But Kosair kept trying, finally convincing Hassan he really was the winner.

Hassan says he will give the car to Ethan in several years when he's old enough to drive in France. But it won't sit idle in the meantime.

"I will drive it a little bit with him on my side," Hassan said.

Hassan has already bought a container to take the car back with him to France. It's the first time a winner has been chosen from outside the country.

Kosair Charities has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kosair Kids in need of organ transplants through this annual raffle. The 2017 Classic Car will be unveiled at the Louisville Auto Show on Jan. 19.